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God equipped us with strength for adversity

Pastor Ronald E. KrauseZion Lutheran Church, Grant

Turn on the news these days, and it doesn’t take long to convince you that not everyone is on friendly terms in our nation–especially between opposing political parties. On the one hand, you’ve got riled up citizens speaking out at town hall meetings voicing their opposition to health care legislation; while on the other hand you’ve got accusations that such dissenters–and others like them–belong to right-wing fanatical groups or domestic terrorist organizations. I, myself, fit into both of those categories according to some! The point being, it’s fairly easy to identify those who might be considered as enemies–at least politically speaking–on an earthly level. If someone is out to do us harm, we can usually take the appropriate measures to defend ourselves against their attacks. How nice it would be if it were that easy to resist and defend ourselves against our spiritual enemies. Peter tells us in our Epistle reading this past Sunday that “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Elsewhere he says that our enemy, the devil, is “like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” It may well seem to us that standing up against such attacks is beyond our strength and ability; and it is. Fortunately, though, we have a Savior who has conquered Satan with his great victory over sin, death and evil on our behalf. Through our faith in his innocent suffering and death on the cross, Satan has lost his power to accuse us before God, because all of our sins have been washed away from God’s sight through the blood of His Son. We may be no match for Satan on our own, but we are not on our own; our Savior gives us all that we need to stand steadfast in the faith and to endure the attacks of our enemy against us. Not those pesky politicians from Washington, but he who seeks to do us even greater damage.

Check out Ephesians 6:10-20 and learn how our Lord promises to equip his saints to stand strong in the faith.